5 I) Newsletter of the | ( COMMODORE COMPUTER USERS GROUP (QLD) INC.

Spe Seana homeng age p= i VOL.7 No.4 NOVEMBER 1990

conn Nectar af COMPUTER dae | | P USERS CROUP (OLD) INC, :-| COMMODORE COMPUTER USERS GROUP (QLD) INC

MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE CONTENTS PRESIDENT: Greg Perry Ph. 366 3295 INFORMATION SECRET ARY: Cursory Notes Mike Williams Ph. 209 9084 Top This! TREASURER: A New Personal Computer Andrew Hinz Library News CHIEF LIBRARIAN: Bytes Phil Guern Ph. 378 9756 Important Notice NEWS R EDITOR: 8 BITS & PIECES Ralph De Vries Ph. 300 3477 C64/128 Library Software & Hardware SUBGROUP LIAISON: Steve Hovelroud Ph. 298 5128 . ing a oe and C Power " -64 Machine e- Part 1 COMMITTEE MEMBERS MONTTOR © Amiga Help! Desktop Publishing - Part 3 C-64/128 COORDINATOR: Vector Interrupts Leigh Winsor Ph. 379 2405 Amiga and Absolute Executables GA COORDINATOR: 8520 Problems Robert Googe Ph. 288 8863 AmigaDOS Version 2.0 AMIGA GURU: Review: Macro-68 Assembler Auto Config Steve McNamee Ph. 260 6327 Memory Management, O.S. and... released SALES

C64/128 DISKS & ACCESSORIES: Greg J ackson Ph. 285 3894 C64/128 P. D. DISKS AND TAPES: Doug Maclurkin Ph. 350 4034 inions expressed in CURSOR are those of the AMIGA DISKS & ACCESSORIES: Author(s), and thus not necessarily those of the Ken Clem Ph. 287 3698 C.C.U.G.(QLD) Inc. or the Editor. AMIGA PUBLIC DOMAIN DISKS: Ph. 298 5128 Permission for reprinting by other Commodore Steve Hovelroud and Amiga Computer Users Groups is granted, provid that both the source and author are B. B. S.: (07) 808 7694 acknowledged. Commercial Advertising Rate: SYSOP: 1999 $30.00 per full page, per issue. Graeme Darroch Ph. 209 This at sh for camera-ready A-5 pages. ASSISTANT SYSOP - AMIGA: Tom Yallowle Ph. 251 5845 ASSISTANT

CURSOR PAGE 2 NOVEMBER 1990 MEETINGS GOODS & SERVICES (At Main Meeting or by Mail) MAIN MEETING AMIGA SPECIFIC: Our next Main eee 7 is held on Tuesday 6th of November at the Bardon Professional Develop- Public Domain Disks 3,5" Mail Order: $5.00 ea ment Centre, 390 Simpsons Road, Bardon, start- (+$2.00 Packing & Postage for up to 5 Disks) ing at 8 sik antag? 5 - 8pm & 9pm - 9.30pm. Commercial Library Catalogue Disk 3,5”: $4.00 Salat 7 im - 8pm. ce rence u ihe Cenire’s (+ $2.00 P & P) Carpark in Carwoola Street. j - 5,25" Blank Disks: $8.00 per 10 (+ $2.00 P & P) j : Details of this 3,5” Disks: $15.00 10 (+ $2.00 P & P) month’s topic can be found in the relevant sec- 3,5" Disk Boxes (80 disks): $20.00 (+ $5.00 P & P) tion of this newsletter. 3,5” Disk Labels (68x68mm) 4 sheets (= 48 labels): $1.00 (+ $2.00 P & P) WORKSHOP MEETING Amiga Beginners Guide: $3.00 (+ $1.00 P & P) Amiga Dos Summary: $3.00 (+ $1.00 P & P) The Amiga Workshop is held on Sunday 11th of Micro Switch Replacement Kit for Amiga Mouse November (1pm - 4pm) in the Ithaca RSL Hall, $20.00 (+ $1.00 P & P) cnr. Nash and Elizabeth St, Rosalie. Bring your current membership card, as this workshop is C64/128 SPECIFIC: strictly for members only! (i.e. no friends or rela- tives.) Disk & Accessory Sales: 1pm - 3pm. Bring Public Domain Disks 5,25": $3.00 ea (+ $2.00 P & your own Amiga equipment. This meeting is our P up to 5 Disks) PUBLIC DOMAIN meeting, where our members Public Domain Cassette Tapes (C-64): $2.00 ea have free access to the Group’s Public Domain (+ $1.00 P & P Per Order) Disk Library (currently well over 500 disks). We Commercial Library Catalogue Disk 5,25": $3.00 also have a HELP support group for beginners. (+ $2.00 P & P) For more iecmdnon fine 360 3407, 2 = 5,25” Blank Disks: $8.00 per 10 (+ $2.00 P & P) 1541 ’Drive & Disks Testing’ Disk: $2.00 (+ $2.00 REGIONAL MEETINGS P & P) User Port Plug Backshell: $3.00 (+ $1.00 P & P) CANNON HILL: Last Saturday of the month Public Domain Instruction Book (C64): $5.00 (Noon - 12pm) in the Cannon Hill State School. (+ $1.00 P & P) Ph. Don Friswell - 343 1735 a.h. Starting With Disk Drives : $2.00 (+ $1.00 P & P) KINGSTON: 2nd Saturday of the month (1pm - C-128 Memory Map: $2.00 (+ $1.00 P&P) 12pm) in the Kingston High School. Macro Assembler k: $5.00 (+ $1.00 P & P) Phone Alan Hill - 290 0264 a.h. 64 Sound & Graphics (by G.Perry): $5.00 (+ $2.00 PINE RIVERS: ist Sunday of the month (ipm - P & P) apy in the Strathpine State High School. The Write Stuff (64 Word Processor), with Ph. Barry Bean - 269 7390 a.h. Manual: $18.00 - BB Speller (for C64Wnite Stuff): REDCLIFFE: 3rd Sunday of the month (1pm - $12.00 5pm) in the Masonic Hall, Sutton St. BB Talker (for C64 Write Stuff): $12.00 Ph. Dennis Underwood - 266 8991 a.h. (The above three items each: $3.00 P. & P.) SHERWOOD: 2nd Friday of the month (7.30pm) The Write Stuff (128 Word Processor), with in the Graceville State School. Manual: $30.00. - BB Speller (128 Version): $12.00 Ph. Leigh Winsor - 379 2405 a.h. or Philip Parkin (+ $3.00 P.& P. for the above 2) - 818 1172 a.h. WINDSOR: 2nd Tuesday of the month (7.30pm) GENERAL: at 70 Swan Tce, Windsor. Ph. Rod Watson - 857 6131 a.h. Back Issues of CURSOR : $1.50 each PLUS/4 SUPPORT: - Clarence Stock is support Address Labels (23 x 89 mm): $14.00 per 1000 (+ coordinator for Plus/4 owners. Ph. 397 8894 a.h. $2.00 P & P) pile OF Ribbons for MPS-1000, GX/LX-80 Printers: $7.00 (+ $1.00 P & P) COMMERCIAL SOFTWARE is an Ribbons for MPS-1200/1250, Citizen 120-D Printers: $10.00 (+ $1 P & P) Ribbons for Riteman C or F Printers: $12.00 (+ $1.00 P & P)

NOVEMBER 1990 PAGE 3 CURSOR MAILING ADDRESS YOUR NEWSLETTER

Please address all LETTERS which are not CURSOR appears 11 times annually and is related to CURSOR, but including orders to: dependant on members’ contributions for its content. Address all Newsletter Mail (this C.C.U.G.(Q) inchides advertisements for the Bytes column) to: P.O. Box 274 Springwood Qld 4127. The Editor, "CURSOR" P O Box 384 (Make Cheques payable to: C.C.U.G. (Q) Inc.) ASHGROVE OLD 4060

Please address all PARCELS to: Deadline far the next (DEC) Issue is: FRIDAY 2nd NOVEMBER! C.C.U.G.(Q) 32 Bulwarna St. Shailer Park Old 4128 Short articles (less than a page) and adverts for the BYTES column can be submitted in written or changing Your address, please printed form, but we prefer to receive your When you are use minimum or no advise our Secretary of the address change and articles on disk. Please CURSOR or our SYSOP! formatting in your articles. Do not indent not the Editor of paragraphs and use a single space after a comma semicolon or full stop. If a specific page layout ig MEMBERSHIP FEES ETC. required, include a printout in ihe desired format. Disks will be returned promptly and we Joining Fee: $10.00 pay return postage. Annual Member: Fee: Ordinary Membership*: $25.00 C64/128 Specific: Country / Associate Membership: $15.00 Pensioner Membership: $15.00 Membership: $35.00. Spey your articles on a (1541) 5,25” disk in the Family /Business following format (in order of preference): SEQ Telephone ASCII file, SEQ PET ASCII file, The Write Stuff (*Within the B’ne Metropolitan SuperScript, EasyScript, PaperClip/PocketWriter District) files saved with the SEQ save option, SpeedScript files saved with the SS converter program, opted Library Fee: $5.00 2, (SEQ Standard ASCII file). Sorry, but we are unable to read or convert 1570/1571 formatted LENDING LIBRARY disks, nor are we able to convert GeoWrite FontMaster or Bank Street Writer Files. ; It is a condition of use of our Book, Magazine & Software Lending Library that materials can only AMIGA Specific: be borrowed for a period of 1 Month. If unable to attend the next meeting, members can either mail Supply your articles on 3,5" disk in the f the borrowed material to 32 Bulwarna St, Shailer an A Cit file or a WordPerfect fle ice Park Qld 4128 or they may leave this material minimum formatting. Alternatively, if you own a with their nearest Management Committee , you can upload your articles, news member (but please ring first!). By following ossip, etc. to the Group’s BBS (Ph.80 : these simple rules, you assist your fellow R File Area) - aig members who may want to borrow the books or software which you are returning.

PAGE 4 NOVEMBER 1990 PARCOM PTY LTD Whites Hill Shopping Village Samuel Street, Camp Hill, 4152, Ph (07) 395 2211

NORTH SIDE: 1 Clifford Street, Stafford, 4053 Ph (07) 857 6311

GOLD COAST: 171 Nerang Street, Southport, 4215 Ph (075) 91 5821

AUTHORISED INDEPENDENT COMMODORE SERVICE CENTRES

e Professional Repairs and Product Support

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WHILE-YOU-WAIT-SERVICES: C-64 PCB EXCHANGE - $99.00 A500 PCB EXCHANGE - $129.00 A500 SWITCHABLE ROM - $60.00

Special Rates for Users Group Members! CURSORY NOTES

If last month’s issue of Cursor was Like myself Bill is interested in the Lindsay Vardy month, this issue will topic of desktop publishing, so we may have to be the David Campbell month. start to exchange a bit of information David's articles may be tough going between our groups. for the majority of our members, but within our group we try to cater for The Perth based group, with over 200 every level of expertise. Both these members, meets monthly at Curtin gents well and truly qualify for mem- University but, instead of workshop bership of my "10% Club” (see last meetings, they conduct weekly month’s Cursor). tutorials every Friday evening from 7.30 to 9.30 pm on a wide range of sub- In my spare time I have designed a jects. These tutorial meetings are also calendar for 1991 - laser printers and held at Curtin University where they desktop publishing packages are great use a lecture room equipped with 22 for that sort of thing! For many years A500s - lucky devils. now my wife has insisted on having a calendar in the kitchen on which she Their newsletter is called ’AUGMENT’, can write little notes. It all started based on the club’s initials AUGWA. when she suspected that the local milkman was ‘diddling’ her when the Come to think about it, where do we weekly bill arrived. Her calendar gave get those ridiculously long club names her the opportunity to keep a tally of from? I’ve always hated our Group’s milk purchases, and she found that our initials - CCUGO (and that doesn’t milko was quite honest after all! even include the ‘Inc’ part), and I think AUGWA is just as bad; they are far too Last year I purchased a monthly calen- much of a mouthful. I like names that dar for her in a local chain store fora are short and snappy and that roll of couple of dollars. This time round I the tongue. However, I’d better not copied the design of this one, but suggest that we change at this late added some extra information, like stage in our history, as I’m sure that statutory holidays and (of course) our poor Secretary would flip with ad- CCUGOQO meeting dates for 1991! The ministrative worries if we had a name best news is that we can sell our ‘own’ change. CCUGOQ calendar to you for a mere $1.50 - how is that for value in these in- Hence, CCUGO (Inc) it be, like it or flationary times! not!

From ‘the other side’ of our continent I However, if we did change (which we received an interesting letter from Bill won’t of course), what snappy names Sharpe-Smith, acting President as well can you dream up? Any suggestions? as Newsletter Editor of the Amiga Users Group of Western Australia. Ralph De Vries

CURSOR PAGE 6 NOVEMBER 1990 TOP THIS!

In September’s Cursor, Dennis Wright CONNECTING THE FAX. FOR US, gave us his ’Pompon Instructions’, and WE RECEIPT YOUR KINDLY IN- in October we had, on the other end of QUIRY WILL BE RIGHT NOW SEND the scale, Lindsay Vardy’s article on OUR’S DETAIL INSTRUCT MENU ‘Words’. In case, dear readers, you are FOR YOU. not aware of it, 1991 is Literacy Year, hence the emphasis on the written "WE LOOK FORWARD TO HEARING word. FROM YOU AS SOON. The following few lines will even top The fax was signed, Paul Stone, Project the ‘Pompon Insiructions’ for mangled Manager. English. They were submitted by The Mike Williams (The Mike Williams is -o0000- to distinguish him from the ‘other’ Mike Williams, who is better known as our Secretary). Anyway here goes...

The following cable was sent to Eric Erickson of Microbase Business Sys- tems in Perth, from Chia Kuo Indus- tries in Taiwan.

"AS YOUR NAME AND ADDRESS WERE LISTED IN THE AUSTRALIA IMPORTERS DIRECTORY, WE ARE REPUTATION US WRITING TO YOU WITH A DESIRE TO DO BUSINESS WITH YOU.

"WE HAVE A 5250 MM FACTORIES OF THE TAIWAN, R.O.C, AND PROFESSIONAL, SOCKET CONNECT, DIP PLUG, TELEPHONE JACK AND POLARISING, SALES AND PROVIDE TO THE WORLD. "SO, WE WILL ATTENTIVE YOUR PROFITABEL AND OUR’S QUALITY IN OUR’S PRODUCTS. AND WE WISH YOUR WELLCOME O.E.M. FOR US WORKLINE WITH YOUR OBJECTIVE.

"IF YOU INTERESTING OUR’S Portrait of an Australian PRODUCTS AND WOULD GET Saftware Distributor SOME INFORMATION, PLEASE,

NOVEMBER 1990 PAGE 7 CURSOR A Cheap and Practical Christmas Gift?

Everybody needs a calendar, so why not give your relatives or yourself this Christmas a €.C.U.G.9. Calendar?

For a mere $1.50 (plus $1.50 postage) you get a useful kitchen- or office type calendar in A4 size, which not only lists all the normal holidays, but also gives you details of our Groups meetings during the coming year.

MAY 1991

| Available now at our Main Meeting, Workshop Meeting and Sub-Group Meetings, or order by mail by writing to: P.O. Box 274, Springwood, Old, 4127, and enclose your cheque for $3.00 per calendar.

CURSOR PAGE 8 NOVEMBER 1990 A NEW PERSONAL COMPUTER (From the Sep. ’90 Cariboo Club Newsletter) The personal computer industry was In addition the Penthouse Pet will be shocked recently when Penthouse able to interface with the next genera- merged with Commodore and entered tion of interactive video disks. Users the PC market. The venture will intro- will be able to pick from a wide variety duce the PENTHOUSE PET, a VERY of fantasies with the aid of a groan- personal computer, designed to satisfy activated selector. Of course the system a variety of Users’ needs. comes with a . For the party market, Penthouse has Planning a new line of velvet and satin developed a Local Area Network cal- software, the company’s Times Square led ORGYNET, which the company R & D facility is working on applica- claims is a breakthrough in compati- tions packages for the home entertain- bility. With the ORGYNET input- ment market. output port, you can stick your plug right in. A cluster controller has also One of the niftier applications is a great been designed to satisfy the interactive word processing package called needs of up to four users at a time. Un- SLEAZY WRITER, which can generate like others, ORGYNET features a an almost infinite number of Penthouse tangle of coax and uses TSMA (Tactile Forum letters, using a vocabulary of Sense Multiple Access) to allow up to only fifty words. 69 users to interact with the system and each other simultaneously. Al- Other software packages include Ac- though Penthouse reports that ORGY- counts Painable, Visi-Crotch, a Eunuch NET can sustain prolonged interactive , Electronic Male, sessions, insiders report that the and a graphics package featuring 200 throughput peaks after about 30 secs. different shades of pink. A user-friendly language called VIRGIN The Pet will be distributed by Frede- will guide first timers every step of the rick’s of Hollywood, local newsstands way. and Sears. Penthouse is also strong in Service and Maintenance. S & M will One of the main research thrusts is to be handled by a nationwide fleet of develop a warm man-machine inter- vans equipped with a variety of whips, face. According to reliable Penthouse chains and other tools. sources, "erotica is simply an extension The new generation ohpeegne. com- of ergonomics”. The Pet terminal has uate was anticipated from a limp been designed with a ribbed exterior eginning; the erotic information and comes in a variety of tropical co- processing market has been rising in lours. California publisher’s Blue Boy recent years and is now quite firm, al- is offering an ACK DC power supply. though the recession has created some soft spots. A company spokesman also lauded the Pet’s portability. "With mois- Penthouse’s strategy is to use its solid ture-resistant packaging you can take orders to enter the soft markets, jack your Pet an ere — you can go swim- up the Eales ae when things get ming with it, take it into your jacuzzi, going, then pull out just before com- or even go to bed with it!" petitors come rushing to the market.

NOVEMBER 1990 PAGE 9 CURSOR LIBRARY NEWS by Phil Guerney II (or re-boot from the disk). This is not explained in the This is being written rather earlier in manual and it is typic of the assum the month than normal so that it is tions made by programmers that make with the editor before I leave fora life difficult for beginners or users who couple of weeks holiday. To fill in the are not interested in understanding the space, I have provided a list of the operating system to such an extent just most recent 100 items that have been to be able to use an application ack- added to the C64/128 commercial ave: The number and variety of sup- software library. The total list of plied "clip art” pictures is quite small. C64/128 software (and some hard- ware) is now nearly 300 items long and Deluxe Video III is a very much more would take several Cursor issues to impressive package. The user interface publish so "8-bit" members should ob- is excellent and it all works quite tain a copy of the Catalogue Disk to get quickly on a floppy drive system (like a full listing. At the time of writing, mine unfortunately still is). A lot of its you would not yet have received my power could not be tried out at my plea in last months Cursor for an assis- place, such as MIDI sound output, live tant to help prepare the C64 format video overlay through a genlock and Catalogue Disk, but I hope it spurs external VCR control, but it all should some member with both an Amiga and mean potentially high quality products an 8-bit machine to spend a few hours from a relatively cheap set-up. As with once every three months to get out a all such packages, the result really much needed updated disk. depends on the standard of the art going in and the creativity of the user. Anything I try will always look sadly amateurish. You will need 1MB and 2 Two new items in the Amiga library floppy drives or a hard drive to run it. this month are both from the Electronic Arts "Deluxe” series. Both are quite The last new Amiga item is Where in well known so require little explana- the World is Carmen Sandiego? to go tion from me, but I will offer some per- with last months Europe version. | sonal comments. can’t wait until they bring out the Where in Time version for the Amiga, Deluxe Print II is very much like the a clever extension of this format to his- old favourite Print Shap on the C64, tory as well as geography. except it has colour (if your printer has it) and a bit more flexibility. I par- C64/128 SOFTWARE ticularly like the border-pattern editing system. Fonts seem limited to those in Continuing second-hand purchases for your Fonts: directory so, if you are like the C64/128 collection include: me and have stripped your disk down to ust opaz, you will have Designasaurus - a fancifully packaged to use the CLI to assign fonts: to production that allows a mixed-up (or another disk and directory containing correct) dinosaur skeleton to be put other fonts before starting Deluxe Print together from choices for head, neck,

CURSOR PAGE 10 NOVEMBER 1990 body and tail. This can then be printed music, sounds and colour animation of out. Combined with a so-called educa- battles. tional game about dinosaurs, simple in concept but impossible to play, you The Fourth Protocol: The Game - an have an overhyped program for which adventure game based on the the most attractive part is the box. But Frederick Forsyth novel. Hint sheets my seven-year old son enjoyed print- included. ing out Tyranosaurus Tom and other creations. We now have the latest version of Maverick (V5) which the programmers Star Fleet I: The War Begins - a com- Say will be the last for ever more. plex science fiction war game with Parameter modules now go up to nearly 100 pages in the manual. This eight. This program has paid for itself version was published in 1985 but I many times over in restoring damaged strongly suspect that this game had its originals of several irreplaceable origins in an older mainframe or mini library programs. 1581 support has program with interaction through a aeen increased for those with that teletype terminal. At least it now has rive.

IMPORTANT!!!

mee a ee a ea ae ee a a ee i ee rrr on” FOR SALE MEMBERS, A2052 Memory ee oe Board for , c/w 2 Meg of Please address PARCELS ALL. for What Offers? the Group (library material, etc.) to: 1084 Colour Monitor, c/w all cables (incl C64/128 cables). - Make an Offer. C.CrU.'G: CC) 32 Bulwarna Street Contact David Johnson on (07) 2776796 SHAILER PARK OLD 4128 NetComm Pocket Modem 123 for /2000, c/w GPTerm V.4.0 software - $160. as our Secretary is unable to collect Contact Mark Eckert on (07) 8915268 parcels during normal Post Office business hours. C64 Programmer's Reference Guide, in perfect condition - $30 Your cooperation is appreciated! C64: Bard’s Tale I, II, III, disks. - $25 ea or $70 for all three programs. C64 version of GPTerm + RS232C Interface. - Note, this only applies to parcels. $30. Letters, of course, should be addressed to the Group’s P O Box. Phone Kingston Arthur on (07) 200 5613, (7pm-9pm). The Management Committee Epson LQ850 Printer , fitted with upgrade ROM. In Perfect Condition - $500 Contact Ralph De Vries on (07) 300 3477

NOVEMBER 1990 PAGE 11 CURSOR g G} (PUEICESS)

SEPTEMBER MEETING vantage being greater persistence and a higher frustration threshold. Cor Geels Angus Norrie demonstrated some of has been of great assistance to our his high-res graphics routines written members in sometimes volunteering to in C-Power, and ran timed com- take on open ended problems with parisons of C with interpreted and printers, which may be solved in mi- compiled BASIC. There was then an nutes or resist solution after countless opportunity for discussion, and mem- hours. bers of the group expresses a. wish for more and varied input into the Demos, So,if you are having printer problems a wish for a revival of a regular with TWS, don’t apologise, or keep it workshop, and for classes or a teaching under your hat. Chances are that an- group on BASIC, or DOS etc. (The other user has already solved your diagnosis may be correct, but we lack problem. If not, and if there is enough volunteers or perhaps a charismatic interest, we could organise a special leader to implement a solution.) TWS workshop to sort out such problems. "TWS - IT’S A WONDERFUL PRO- GRAM BUT IT DOESN’T WORK NOVEMBER MEETING WITH MY PRINTER.” C64/128 AND PERIPHERALS - That chance remark from one of 64 REPAIR AND MAINTENANCE by users at the demo underlines the im- TONY MAY portance of users actually talking to each other. If there is one thing we can Tony May of South East Queensland learn from Cursor and our User Group, Computer Repairs has agreed to give a it is to take a critical attitude to ma- talk for the 64/128 group. Those who chines and software -if a program is recall his previous lucid and masterly not working for you, then either get lecture for the Group will regard this help or get rid of it. Our Group pro- talk as an important event. vides a means of drawing on shared experience, and we ought to be able to Tony asked for some feedback from manage this with the Write Stuff. our users to help focus his talk. I have left the topic open, but suggested that But printers are sometimes difficult- its general focus might be on what one people who share the same type of needs to know as an Informed User of computer may have quite different Commodore hardware. Those who are types of printer. If you ask for help, committed to surviving as long term then unless your helper has a similar Users of the 64, know that they will in- printer, the chances are that he has to creasing left to their own devices, and proceed by guesswork and generalisa- need to plan accordingly. (Will there tion to any solution, with his only ad- even be spare parts in the long term?).

CURSOR PAGE 12 INOVEMBER 1990 In particular, how can an Informed I have no doubt that his talk will offer User draw a demarcation line between guidance on the common patterns of what he can sensibly choose to do for symptoms and possible faults that are himself and what is best left to an ex- helpful with drive alignment, prog- pert. nosis for aging 1571s, how to distin- guish ROM versions, (note the No doubt different people will draw problems caused with 64 Turbo the line in different places, but they ROMS), and no doubt lots of things should be able to do so in an informed one should know if one knew what to way. This is a question which our ask. All users with a continuing inter- country members have always had to est in the 8 bit Commodore hardware live with (sometimes rather painfully). should look forward to Tony’s talk. For example, should they try to live With his permission, I hope it is poss- with a drive drifting out of alignment, ible to obtain a permanent record of his or send it off to the city, knowing it talk for publication in Cursor. may be ages before they see it again. What if it comes back again and it still has the same problem and they are told Leigh Winsor (so I was assured recently by a member from Mackay) that it’s really a problem of a fungus that grows on disks in the -0o0000- tropics!

C64/128 Software and Hardware - LATEST 100

Each entry in the list consists of two lines. The BASIC 8 system first line contains the title and disk number. The Basic 8 Toolkit (279) first item on the second line is the model of 8-bit C128 - Utilities for Basic 8 computer for which the software was written. Basic 8 with Basic PAINT, WRITE, PRINT, CALC Note that C128 is given ONLY for programs (197) which are for C128 native mode or CP/M. The C128 - graphical operating system enhancement rest of the second line is a comment on the for C128 program. Basic 8 with Basic PAINT, WRITE, PRINT, CALC (278) Archon (249) C128 - slightly revised version of D197 C64 - chess like strategy, classic game BASIC-128 Compiler and Development System Archon (249.2) (235) C64 - this has better packaging than 249A (USA C128 - compiles Basic 7 version) Battle Cruiser (210) B/Graph - (248) C64 - game C64 - good business, science and statisitics Big Blue Reader (225) graphs both - File transfer 1541/ MS-DOS/ CP/M, Banana Republic (194) Requires 1571 drive C64 - game Bridge 5.0 (229) Basic 8 - How to Get the Most Out Of Basic 8 C64 - plays the card game (280) Buggy Boy (290) C128 - Book with two disks, tutorial on the C64 - racing car game

NOVEMBER 1990 PAGE 13 CURSOR Certificate Maker + Certificate Library Vol I (239) Knight Rider (212) C64 - Creates certificates on a printer C64 - game Chartpak 64 (220) Kracker Jax Revealed Vol 1 (240) C64 - graphing and data simulation, not as good C64 - tutor on copy protection methods as B/Graph Kracker Jax Revealed Vol 2 (241) Clowns (202) C64 - tutor on copy protection methods C64 - game, Cartridge, REQUIRES PADDLES Kracker Jax Revealed Vol 3 (242) Colorez 128 (281) C64 - tutor on copy protection methods C128 - Convert 40-column to 80-column hi-res Kracker Jax Volumes 1-7 (273) graphics C64 - Parameters to remove copy protection Digitalker 128 (256) Label Wizard (234) C128 - Use digitized sounds in C128 programs - C64 - Printer Utility Electronic Card File (243) Laser Genius (276) C64 - database, old and limited C64 - Machine Code Development System Electronic Cash Book (244) ~ ed/asm/mon/debug C64 - "business" program, old and limited Lightwaves (217) Elementary Science, Physics, Chemistry (204) C64 - educational strategy game C64 - educational M. U. L. E. (246) F-15 Strike Eagle (198) C64 - classic and my kids favourite! C64 - game M128 Cash Book (275) Fahrenheit 451 (216) C128 - Uses CP/M Mode so 1571 drive C64 - adventure game REQUIRED. Written for Aust/NZ. FasTrac 128 (274) M64 General Ledger (260) C128 - Disk utilities for C128’s; DOES NOT break C64 - by Meridian (NZ firm) for Aust/NZ protection account Film Maker (284) Mail-Master (213) C64 - animation creator C64 - from Loadstar Flexidraw 5.5 (270) Maverick V 3.0232 C64 - some parts of package requires a C64disk utilities; backs-up copy-protected GEOPUBLISH (227) software C64 - desktop publisher for GEOS Maverick V4 and Parameter Mods 2-7 (disk GEOS 128 V2.0 (228) C128 - windows, icons, ubilities) 258 menus and (optional) mice for C128 both - Disk utilities; backs-up copy-protected GEOS V2.0 (226) software C64 - windows, icons, menus and (optional) mice Merlin 64218 for C64 C64macro assembler Golf Construction Set (250) Mouse (Winner M3 proportional) (254) C64 - golf game including course building both - 1351 compatible (German manual) Mouse (Winner M3 proportional) (255) Graph Now/Paint Now (251) both - 1351 compatible C64 - Graphing etc, not the best package - see Muppet Learning Keys (287) B/Graph C64 - HARDWARE (Large Keypad) and Graphics Pirate (201) program C64 - Cartridge and Disk, captures screens & Music Construction Set (252) sprites C64 - music composition and playing Home Designer (224) Music Maker Playalong Album - Beatles (286) C128 - CAD (Computer Aided Drafting), good C64 - for music maker program (not in library) 8-bit attempt Ogre (209) Instant Music (253) C64 - game C64 - music composition and playing Patton vs Rommel (269) Jet V2.0 (219) C64 - game C64 - flight simulator Pinball Constmuction Set (247) Keys to Typing (292) C64 - classic game C64 - typing tutor

CURSOR PAGE 14 INNOVEMBER 1990 Pre-Schooler 3-8 years, Learning Letters and The Empire Strikes Back (262) Numbers (206) C64 - educational C64 - game Project Stealth Fighter (294) The Graphics Galleria (271) C64 - combination game and flight simulator C64 - Clip art in Flexidraw and Doodle formats Rendezvous with Rama (293) The Image System (288) C64 - adventure game, story by Arthur C Clarke C64 - paint tools include distort, grab, colour Return of the Jedi (263) filters C64 - game The OCP Art Studio (196) Run Works (230) C64 - see D195 for later version; this one still both - Collection of 7 of RUN’s best programs good Run’s GEOS Power Pak (231) The Seven Cities of Gold (200) both - Collection of GEOS programs C64 - game Russia - The Great War in the East 1941-1945 The Write Stuff & BB Talker (222) (245) C64 - Word processor, includes talking version C64 - War simulation game Tooth Invaders (203) Screen F/X and Grafix-Link (257) C64 - game, Cartridge C64 - Titles and Video effects Trivial Pursuit - Baby Boomers Edition (259) Shanghai (237) C64 - quiz game, best if born 1945-1960! C64 - strategy game based on Mah Jongg Trivial Pursuit - A New Beginning (268) Cé64 - Sim City (277) quiz game C64 - City Simulation Game with Terrain Editor Video Title Shop + Graphics Companion I (238) Sketchpad 128 (C128 Graphics) (272) C64 - for VCR Titles C128 - REQUIRES a 1351 (or compatible) War Games Pack (291) MOUSE C64 - 10 games, 3 disks (incl Sky Fox, Arctic Fox) Sky Travel (221) War in the South Pacific (211) C64 - Astronomy; BEST of its type! C64 - war simulation game Social Studies, Geography, Ancient History (205) Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? (223) C64 - educational C64 - very popular in schools, teaches geography Sound Expander FM Sound Module (285) & more C64 - hardware 8 voice synthesiser + keyboard Worms (289) overlay C64 - strategy game Split Personalities (265) Xybots (266) C64 - game C64 - game Star Wars (264) Yes Prime Minister - The Computer Game (267) C64 - game C64 - graphical adventure Stealth Fighter (208) Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders C64 - game (233) SYSRES (282) C64 - graphical adventure, witty American C64 - Programmers BASIC extension - Extensive humour; BIG The Advanced OCP Art Studio (195) C64 - the best drawing program for C64 (mini DPaint!) -oo000- The Armageddon Man (261) C64 - game The Bard’s Tale ff and Clue Book (214) C64 - adventure game The Bard’s Tale III and Clue Book (215) C64 - adventure game The Dam Busters (199) C64 - game The Designer’s Pencil (cartridge) (283) C64 - graphics programming through menu interface

NOVEMBER 1990 PAGE 15 CURSOR AMIGANET Ethernet network for .

* Industry standard Ethernet architechture. * Networking software included. * True peer-peer Amiga Networking - access any screen, hard or floppy drive, serial or parallel printer attached to any Amiga in the network. * A500 version - ABS injection moulded cause attaches to expansion port of computer, * A2000 version enhanced with G4Kbytes data buffer with 16bit data path assisted by a DMA sequencer. (For high traffic centralised facility or a file server.)

AmigaNet A500 $700.00 (ex tax) AmigaNet A2000 $900.00 (ex tax)

i GPTerm-Amiga V4 Australia’s most popular Amiga telecommunications software.

* Mouse or keyboard driven, fully multitasking from CLI or workbench, User defined ’configurations’ for different services, 110 page manual and moore. * Full terminal emulations for videotex and ANSI/Aimlyu, 1BM, V'T100 ANSI terminal emulations for Viuatel & Discovery 40/80, Pegasus and other text bused services us well as BBSs * File transfer with XModem, YModem, full ZModem, SEAlink, KERMIT, Punter and ASCII protocols. Butch transfers supported. .

Packaged with an extensive manual, not copy protected. | GPT erm-Amiga V4 $99.00

Also available: Amiga and C64 Modem packages, GPTerm-64 (videotex and ascii communications for C64/128, rrp $59.00). Full range of NetComm and AVTEK .

Available from your local dealer or direct from GP Software Specialists in Amiga Communications 21 Aloomba Rd. ASHGROVE QLD 4060 Ph (07) 3661402 HELP! COLUMN

This is the HELP! column for users of C-64, C-128 and other 8-Bit computers. If ou would like to share your experience in the fields of programming, software, hardwate etc. with your fellow members, submit your name with your area of expertise to the editor. Remember: the more names, the more knowledge can be disseminated amongst our members.

NAME: HELP OFFERED WITH: PHONE NO: Terry Baade Contact for M’borough/Hervey Bay Members (071) 215 059 Kerry De Baar _ Basic, Assembly Language 379 5617 Eddie Brook Amateur Radio Fax & Weather Programs 349 4394 Cor Geels SuperScript, WriteStuff, PaperClip, GEOS 263 2839 Cor Geels C-64 Newcomers, Printers & Interfacing 263 2839 Ross Horn CP/M Family Tree Program (P.A.T.) 395 0618 Doreen Horne Programming Problems & Disk Corruption 398 7441 Matthew James __ Basic, Logo, &EOS, WriteStuff, Games Tips 300 5443 Ron Long SuperScript, Label Maker, Mailing Lists (075) 357 139 Ivor Laggan GEOS 273 4212 Doug MacLurkin MicroSwift Spreadsheet, Basic 358 4442 Peter Meharg Basic, Machine Language 376 1621 Angus Norrie Simon’s Basic 371 2945 Vic Mobbs Contact for Sunshine Coast Members (071) 941 330 Vic Mobbs Superscript/Superbase 128 (071) 941 330 George Nelson _EasyScript, Radio 848 2456 Craig Rawlins Pascal, C, Machine Language, Modula-2 379 8957 Ron Rich H’ware Interfacing for Amat. Radio Prgms 355 2623 Greg Shea C-64 Hardware Modifications etc., Basic 345 2799 Fred Turnidge Family Roots (genealogy), Write Stuff (063) 371 124 Denis Wright Easy/SuperScript, CBM & Epson Printers (067) 751 793 Denis Wright C64 <-—-> Nonetiomitodaré ile Transfer (067) 751 793

Please be considerate - these are after hours numbers, so only ring our members between the hours of 6pm and 9pm during week nights. Thank you!

NOVEMBER 1990 PAGE 17 CURSOR ALARM by Lindsay Vardy 12V supply from a rechargeable alarm or motorcycle battery will power a There are 17,000 homes robbed in Aus- heavy duty bell or siren; it needs to be tralia every year, one every 3 minutes, topped up with a charge every month, most committed by young people, un- or fitted with a trickle charger. employed persons or drug users. 15% are committed by professional The connections for Tandy 2N2222 house-breakers. Of these, 79% are com- transistor: Looking at bottom of tran- mitted during daylight hours, 54% sistor with flat side to the left. Top leg entered by forcing windows, 32% by C or Collector, middle +" or Base, jemmying doors. 70% of these had in- bottom leg E or Emitter. Use a rela adequate security at point of entry. socket. Draw a diagram from the fol- (Figures from Insurance Council of lowing: Australia.) 1. Connect leg C to one relay coil pin. Simple precautions should be taken to eae your computer equipment. 2. Connect leg E to GND (common ven if covered by insurance your pro- earth). grams and files may be irreplaceable. Deadlocks on all entry doors and locks 3. Connect leg B to two silicon diodes on all windows are needed, blocks may in series, with band end (Cathode) be screwed into window channels to towards leg B. restrict the size of the window open- ing. However it has often been said 4. Connect 5.6 resistor to top terminal that locks are only to keep honest per- of one switch toggle. sons out. 5. Connect spare relay coil pin to same A simple and economical burglar terminal. alarm may be built using a DPDT relay (6 or 12 volt), a 2N2222 transistor, four 6. Connect other end of resistor to free silicon diodes (100-600 volts), a 560 end of diodes. ohm resistor, a green LED, and 5.6K resistor for 6V, or 12K resistor for 12V. 7. Connect another silicon diode to An architrave type switch with 2 tog- same free end of diodes with band on gles. Because a smart intruder will turn diode facing away from connection. off your power it is not wise to have a mains powered alarm, so a choice has 8. From other end of this diode connect to be made on 6VDC or 12VDC system. 560 ohm resistor in series with green LED and connect to top terminal of A 6V dry battery will last as long as it’s other switch toggle. From same diode shelf life because of the low standby end connect a temporary wire to GND. current drain (1.25 milliamps. Smoke alarms and movement detectors are 9. Connect middle terminal of both tog- usually 12VDC. Your alarm bell or gles together and to battery PLUS. siren will have limited output.

CURSOR PAGE 18 INOVEMBER 1990 10.Connect a silicon diode between Beware of s/steel lugs. Units will relay coil pins with band towards operate at distance up to 11 mm apart. switch (B+). eck for continuity with meter or lamp and battery. 11.Connect battery Negative to GND. The security line may be figure 8 twin The temporary wire connection you lead or smaller split down the middle made simulates the security line run- and may be extended to outside build- ning around your ie ig Turn on ings. Runs of 200 metres or more can toggle for green LED. It should light; if be made. Plan where the runs should not, reverse its connection. This shows go in the home, in older homes the pic- your security line is complete. Turn off. ture rail will hide the wire. Turn on power to your alarm unit. Dis- connect one end of your temporary A keyswitch should be installed at the security line and the relay should | main point of entry to bypass the reed switch over. If not check all connec- switch on the door. On timber framed tions. Remaking the security line con- homes the architrave may be removed nection should switch the relay off. to fit the switch, a larger hole drilled This is bad because an intruder could behind it to take the body of the rejoin the line and the alarm would switch. If a bypass switch is fitted to stop. other doors in use the alarm will pro- tect all windows or screens at night To prevent this, connect one of the mo- while allowing use of the doors. An ex- ving contacts on the relay to the C con- tra bypass reed unit may be fitted so a nection on the transistor. Connect the window can be partly open, still lea- terminal it goes to when energised to ving the security line complete. The GND. This will lock the relay on once it on/off switch may be placed anywhere is energised. The other relay moving convenient, drill a hole in the escut- contact goes to Battery PLUS; the ter- cheon plate for the green LED. Don’t minal that it is switched to goes to the forget this does not check the locks. If bell or siren. Your alarm should be extra motion detectors are fitted inside operating. have the switch out of their range.

Reed switch and magnet units are Smoke alarms are usually self-battery available from Dick Smith and other powered, and should be fitted to suppliers. They consist of a reed switch rooms of smokers in bed. Terminals are and magnet enclosed in two separate provided for 12VDC external power, ivory plastic units measuring 60 mm x and an output to a relay, may be 11mm x 11mm, and are supplied with 6VDC, for a louder siren or bell. Ad- two fixing screws (drill a pilot hole for visable if the person is hard of hearing. hardwood), and two screw terminals for connecting wires. The magnet unit If noise pollution is a problem, get a is fixed to the door or window; use friendly neighbour to turn off the screws for wood or silicon sealer for alarm after investigation, or fit a timer glass or aluminium. Don’t use the self delay, see Tandy’s "555 Timer IC Cir- adhesive pads supplied. Steel door or cuits”. Price $1.99. louvre frames rob the magnets. Solder plated brass solderlugs to wires -ooQ000- BEFORE attaching to terminal screws.

NOVEMBER 1990 PAGE 19 CURSOR EXPLORING THE C LANGUAGE

USING A C-64 AND C POWER 6) It is easy to link in .o programs from a library disk, so building a big pro- by Angus Norrie gram from small tested programs.

1) C is much faster to run than Basic 7) Shell can use memory behind the Basic and Kernal ROMs, so longings 2) It is nearly as fast as machine and running programs up to 50K (20 language. In one test (1987 Truenfels et blocks, 64K-4K-working space). al), relative speeds were: 8) Memory can be reserved for hires Assembler 1 screens, sprites, etc. C Power 1.5 Kyan Pascal 1.9 9) Debugging is nearly as tedious as A compiled Basic 6 with machine language. Super C 6 Simons Basic 13 10) C is claimed to be one of the most Basic 2.0 16 used languages in the world. Commodore Logo 141. 11) Converting a C program to runon 3) It is much slower than Basic to write another computer can be simple. Most and test programs. One must Edit, large and small computers can run C. Compile, Link and Run. 12) C was designed to use in writing 4) A C program is made up of a main the Unix operating system. It’s consi- section, followed by functions (like dered to be the ‘standard language’ of subroutines) that can be called from both the Amiga and Macintosh. the main section. E.g. hires graphics: main(); hires(); clearh(Q); colorh(fcl,bcl); 13) It has been used to write compilers, plot(x,y,p); line(x1,y1,x2,y2,p); lis- operating systems, text editors, data- sajou(); shellQ); loresO. base and telephone switching systems, for numerical analysis, modelling, en- 5) To use C, load and run Shell (4K), gineering ee me, and text- the master program. To write a pro- processing software. gram, then load the Editor (ced, 18K) and write, check, and save the program 14) If you want to know more about (as name.c). Next load the Compiler the C language and its use on the C64, (cc, 25K), which replaces the Editor then Pity will find more information in and converts the program to machine the ollowing issues of Transactor language and then saves it to disk as magazine (all in our book library): 1987 name.o. Finally, load Link (4K), which 03, 1988 03, 1988 07, 1988 12 and 1989 replaces the Compiler and links 04. In the book library there’s also a name.o with any other needed .o pro- copy of Kernighan and Ritchie’s book grams, including those from the Li- "The C programming Language”. In brary disk, and saves the final program our software ppEary yor will find a as name.sh to run from the Shell (or copy of the "Super C Language com- name.b to run from Basic). pier”.

CURSOR PAGE 20 NOVEMBER 1990 C-64 MACHINE LANGUAGE - Part 10 by Will Erdmann 3. Because x can only be incremented phos maxium of 256 times during each In this article I am going to show you BNE instruction it is necessary to use three more ways of placing characters four BNE instructions to fill the screen. on the screen. After typing in the first Therefore except for changing the cha- program you will find an outline of its racters and screen positions lines 1012 - main features listed below. 1024 are a repeat of steps 1 and 2. 1000 AS 41 LDA #$41 4. The rest of the program colours the 1002 A2 00 LDX #$00 1004 9D 00 04 STA $0400,x appropriate sections of screen memory. 1007 EB INX Lines 1026 - 102E place a value of 1 in 1008 DO FA BNE $1004 the first 256 position of screen charac- 100A A2 00 LDX #$00 ter colour memory. You will remember 100C 9D 00 O05 STA $0500,x that the number D800 is calculated by 100F E8 INX 1010 DO FA BNE $100C adding 54272 to 1024. Thus the number 1012 A2 00 LDX #$00 55296 is arrived at which is D800 in 1014 AQ 42 LDA #$42 hex. When the number is used in the 1016 9D 00 06 STA $0600,x following way -: 1019 EB INX 101A DO FA BNE $1016 101C AQ 43 LDA #$43 LDA #$01 101E A2 00 LDX #$00 LDX #$00 1020 9D 00 07 STA $0700,x STA $D800,xX 1023 E8 INX INX 1024 DO FA BNE $1020 BNE $102A 1026 AQ Ol LDA #$01 1028 A2 00 LDX #$00 the value of 01 is stored from locations 102A 9D 00 D8 STA $D800,x 102D E8 INX D800 to D8FF. Hence the first 256 102E DO FA BNE $102A characters on the screen are coloured 1030 AQ 07 LDA #$07 white. The numbers D900,DA00 and 1032 A2 00 LDX #$00 DBOO have been calculated by adding 1034 9D 00 D9 STA SD8FE,x 1037 E8 INX 54272 to 1280 (0500 hex), 1536 (0600 1038 DO FA BNE $1034 hex) and 1792 (0700 hex). At the begin- 103A A9 05 LDA #S05 ning of each BNE instruction (lines 103C A2 00 LDX #$00 1030 - 104C) different numbers are 103E 9D 00 DA STA $DAOO0,x 1041 E8 INX stored in the appropriate areas of 1042 DO FA BNE $103E character colour RAM therefore when 1044 AQ 04 LDA #$04 the program is run different areas of 1046 A2 00 LDX #$00 the screen are given different colours. 1048 9D 00 DB STA $DBOO,x 104B E8 INX After each character has been given its 104C DO FA BNE $1048 unique position and colour on the 104E 4C 4E 10 JMP $104E screen line 104E loops to itself so when L651. 00 BRK the program is run it will never stop unless the reset button is pressed. 1. Lines 1000 - 1008 fill the first 256 ositions on the screen with hearts. Below is a table of some character . Lines 100A - 1010 fill the next 256 values in hex and the letters they positions with hearts. represent.

NOVEMBER 1990 PAGE 21 CURSOR CHARACTER VALUE ALPHABET Now some features of this program you should be aware of-: O01 02 03 1. lines 1000 - 1002 clear screen. 04 05 2. lines 1005 - 100E tranfer 16 charac- 06 ters from locations OFEO - OFE8 to 05E7 07 08 - 05F7 because x is compared to 16 (10 09 hex) in line 100E. 05E7 is about the OA center of the screen. OB OC OD 3. lines 1012 - 1017 is the RUN/STOP OE KEY program. OF 10 id 4. The’ compare x to ’ instruction in a2 line 1000E can be altered depending 13 how many characters in the hex dump 14 you want to display. If you wanted to iS 16 use 26 characters you would change Li] line 100E to read-: 18 Lg KMS GHHNDDVOZEYPAGHROAAMOUNDy NK CPX #S1A 20 SPACE In my second program | am going to for example. However make sure the show you an easy way of displaying number you put there is no greater your name or a message on the screen. than 255. Place your characters in any This sort of a program is sometimes convenient RAM address you prefer used in arcade games to display the and refer to that hex dump according- various options available to the user. ly.

1000 AQ 93 LDA #$93 To take advantage of my third and last 1002 20 D2 FF JSR SFFD2 program for this month you will have 1005 A2 00 LDX #$00 to type M OF00,0F28 press RETURN 1007 BD EO OF LDA SOFEO,X and change the eet) ane in the hex 100A 39D E7 05 STA SOSE7,X 100D E8 INX dump to read the following-: 100E EO 10 CPX #$10 1010 DO FS BNE $1007 OFOO BF BF BF BF OO FD FD OO 1012 20 El FF JSR FFE1 OFO8 BF OO F7 F7 F7 F7 OO BF 1015 FO EF BEQ $1006 OF10 00 7C DE EE DE E4 78 OO 1017 4C 12 10 JMP $1012 OF18 00 OO 1E 27 7B 77 7B 3E 101A 00 BRK OF20 O01 81 EO 69 7F 7F 13 O02 OF28 4E 3E 38 70 38 30 FO 7C Now type M OFE0,0FE8 press RETURN and change what is held there to read Then copy the following program. the following or work what message or name that you may want to put there 1000 A2 00 LDX #$00 16002 BD 00 OF LDA S$OFOO,X by using the table above. 1005 9D 08 32 STA $3208,X 1008 E8 INX OFEO 17 09 OC OC 20 05 12 04 1009 EO 30 CPX #$30 OFES8 OD 01 OE OE 20 20 20 20 100B DO F5 BNE $1002 100D A9 93 LDA #$93

CURSOR PAGE 22 NOVEMBER 1990 1O0F FF SFFD2 109B EO 04 CPX #$04 1012 #$1D 1093D DO D7 BNE $1076 1014 DO $p018 109F A2 OO LDX #$00 1017 #$46 1OA1 9D SE 06 STA S$O65E,xX 1019 04 $0489 10A4 9D 86 06 STA $0686,xX 101C 04 $0462 10A7 9D AE O06 STA SO6AE,X 101F #$41 1OAA E8 INX 1021 #$00 10AB EO OD CPX #$0D 1023 04 $04B0,X LOAD DO F2 BNE $10Al1 1026 04 $04D8,xX 1OAF A2 00 LDX #$00 1029 05 $0500,x 10B1 9D D6 06 STA $06D6,xX 102C 05 $0528,xX 10B4 E8 INX 102F 10B5 EO 15 CPX #$15 1030 #$03 10B7 DO F8 BNE $10B1 1032 $1023 10B9 4C B9 10 JMP $10B9 1034 #$43 10BC 00 BRK 1036 #$00 1038 05 $0546,xX Before running the program type 103B LO3C #$16 M3100 press RETURN and make sure 103E $1038 the hex dump reads as follows-: 1040 #$00 1042 05 $0520,x 3100 00 00 00 60 00 00 O00 OOD 1045 1046 #$08 1048 $1042 When you type G 1000 a brick house 104A #$00 with a door and a window will appear. 104C O05 $052B,xX I will refer to these programs A abe 104F articles. 1050 #$07 LOSZ $104C 1054 : #$00 If you have any he cae eon would 1056 05 $OS5S6D,xX like me to use in this type of a program 1059 please let me know. My adress is-: 105A #$18 105C $1056 105E #$00 Will Erdmann, 1060 05 $0594,xX Western Avenue, 1063 MONTVILLE QLD 4560 1064 #S1A 1066 $1060 1068 #$41 Phone (074) 429226, 2pm - 6pm Mon - 106A #$00 Fri and 11am - 8pm Sat - Sun. 106C O05 SOSBE,X 106F 1070 #$15 1072 $106C -o0o000- 1074 #$00 1076 $O5E6,X 1079 SOS5SEF,X 107C SO5F7,X 10O7F SO60E,X 1082 $0617,X 1085 $O61F,X 1088 $0636,xX 108B $O63F,X 108E $0647,X 1091 SO66F,X 1094 $0697,X 1097 SO6BF,X 109A

PAGE 23 CURSOR Amiga 500 Turbo XT

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A500 A1000 512K internal memory, with clock $145.00 8Meg expansion board 0K $398.00 512K internal memory, without clock $125.00 8Meg expansion board 512K $478.00 (both come with switch) 8Meg expansion board 1Meg $558.00 8Meg expansion board 2Meg $718.00 8Meg expansion board 0K $398.00 8Meg expansion board 4Meg $1038.00 8Meg expansion board 512K $478.00 8Meg expansion board 8Meg $1678.00 8Meg expansion board 1Meg $558.00 8Meg expansion board 2Meg $718.00 Hard Drives 8Meg expansion board 4Meg $1038.00 Case, H/Drive interface and cont. $350.00 8Meg expansion board 8Meg $1678.00 Complete with 40Meg H/Drive $950.00 Power supply $50.00 Subsystem - fits under the A500 and passes the bus. Can house an 8Meg board plus the Phoenix Board - replacement motherboard for H/Drive. the A1000. Complete with Obese Agnus Case only $70.00 and 1Meg chip RAM. $695.00 Case and power supply $170.00 Case, power supply, H/Drive interface and controller $395.00 A500 & A1000 Complete with 40Meg H/Drive $1040.00 5.25" Disk drives $278.00 * Power supply must be used with H/Drive Drive swap switch (boot from DF1:) $30.00 Paralell port adaptors (gender changer) $30.00 swap switch $30.00 - (file manager) $50.00 Software Disks MegaDisc - Australian disk magazine $19.00 3.5" DSDD Floppy disks $1.20 JumpDisk - American disk magazine $12.95 3.5" Disk Box holds 80 $12.95 Visa / Mastercard / Bankcard accepted C.O.D. can be arranged

For orders or inquiries Mon - Fri 9.00 am - 6.00 pm Phone or Fax Sat 10.00 am - 1.00 pm Phoenix Microtechnologies Pty Ltd 18 Hampton Road Keswick Phone (08) 293 8752 Fax (08) 293 $814 South Australia 5035 MICINILTIORR)

SHORT SIGHTED If the program does all that it promises in their publicity blurb, I’d be only too Recently I read with great interest in happy to purchase a copy; in fact, in the ICPUG newsletter of the UK, that that case I could give them some badly their editor had similar problems to needed publicity in both our newsletter mine, namely accessing the scalable and commercial publications like Me- fonts, with which the HP Laserjet III is gadisk, but to expect me to fork out equipped. $300 sight unseen (you can buy Word- Perfect discounted for $299), is really a My regular word processor, WordPer- bit over the top. me fect does not support them (yet), so I itor use desktop publishing programs to get the best out of our printer, which is SEPTEMBER MEETING fine, but these programs are too slow for just dashing off a letter. After the normal preliminaries, our Amiga coordinator,Robert Googe, Anyhow, our English friends got hold went back to basics with the Amiga. of a beta test version of a locally made word processor which did support He demonstrated to our new members these scalable fonts of the Laserjet, so I what to do when you come home with quickly wrote a letter to the editor of your new Amiga and how to make ICPUG magazine, asking for more in- sense out of all those new and strange formation. computer terms. By using only a stan- dard A500 with its inbuilt drive, Robert A few weeks later I received a reply was able to show newcomers how to from the English software manufac- perform some of the standard func- turer, advising me that, a) yes, the new tions such as disk copying etc. with the version of their word processor did computer. His demonstration was well support the HP’s scalable fonts, b), yes, received by our new Amiga members. they were very much aware that their word processor was not terribly popu- SEPTEMBER WORKSHOP lar in Australia, and c), yes, I could order a copy from them at the intro- Despite the fact that this was our P. D. ductory price of £125 (about $300)! Disk Copying workshop, we had several other interesting activities on Considering that their product is vir- the go. Steve McNamee and Greg tually unknown here, and that I am far Perry showed off the capabilities of from certain if their word processor Version 2.0 (beta test version) of the will do the job for me, I found it rather Amiga Operating System. Elsewhere short sighted that this company did Lindsay Whipp showed us how far he not supply me with an evaluation has progressedwith Amos, the recently copy, free of charge. released new language for the Amiga.

CURSOR PAGE 26 INNOVEMBER 1990 WHAT’S ON IN NOVEMBER has paper parking, runs at 150 c.p.s. (draft) and 50 c.p.s. in LQ mode, and This month we will have our demo of will take paper up to A3 size; yet it’s AMOS by Lindsay Whipp and Steve smaller than most 24 pin printers! Hovelroud as our guides. The Rosalie Workshop meeting will be Extra font cards are available, as well devoted to Public Domain Software. as an optional colour printing module.

DISK PRICE REDUCTION In tests it was found to be one of the quietest printers in its class. In Ger- It is now Official - the price for our 3,5" many it’s now considered ‘the’ printer disks is now down to $15.00 per box! in its price range. We don’t know its Australian price, but it’s worth check- MORE PRICE REDUCTIONS ing out.

We’ve seen the A590 hard drive adver- MOUSE SWITCHES tised for $699 and an A2000 with a 40 Meg hard drive for $2495. Also adver- Mouse playing up? If the mouse but- tised by Computer Spot was DPaint III tons don’t respond anymore, it’s time for $99.95! to install some new micro switches.

NEW GOLD DISK DISTRIBUTOR The group now sells a kit of 2 switches for $20. If you need advice with the in- Dataflow Computer Services P/L are stallation, talk to Steve McNamee, the new Australian Distributors for Steve Hovelroud or Robert Googe. Gold Disk products (Professional Page, PageSetter, Transcript etc.). They do VIRUSES AND BEGINNERS offer an upgrade service for ProPage, ProDraw and PageSetter. Contact them Did you know that unwittingly you for price details on (02) 3316153, or might have picked up a disk virus write to them at 134 Barcom Avenue, when you copied those disks from Rushcutters Bay, NSW 2011. your friend? Do you know what a virus can do to all your precious disks? 24 PIN PRINTERS Yes, there’s a good possibility that a virus infected disk can destroy your In the market for a 24 pin printer? Sug- total software collection, and in turn gest that you try to have a look at the you may well pass it on to other users! Fujitsu DL-1100. This printer, of a rather unusual design, recently got a At a recent workshop, a new member rave review in the German Amiga had about 10 disks infected with the Magazine. BSG9 virus. Fortunately one of our committee members spotted it and Fully Epson-Q compatible, it comes prevented further damage. with 4 inbuilt fonts, has a 32K buffer,

NOVEMBER 1990 PAGE 27 CURSOR If you don’t know what a virus is or SAS Institute, Inc. what it does, you are the most likely Book Sales: C Compiler person to catch one or more of them, SAS Campus Drive and you need help! Cary, NC 27513-2414 U.S.A. All you have to do, is to come to one of our Sunday workshops, see one of the committee members and ask them to CD-ROM check your disks for virus infection and have a virus checker installed. Xetec is the first independant company Once you have a virus checker in- to advertise a CD-ROM unit for the stalled, there’s far less likelihood of Amiga, and which is supposed to be getting infected, and you will save compatible with Commodore’s own yourself a lot of frustration in the fu- CDTV standard (see Sep. Cursor). ture. Recommended US prices are $599 for an internal unit and $699 for an exter- LATTICE C COMPILER nal unit. Apparently they’ve made a CD available with the whole Fred Fish In our issue of August we wondered if Public Domain Library! Lattice was going to bite the dust. Well, we can advice Lattice users that they PKAZIP can stop worrying. The SAS Institute, Inc. has taken over the full range of This comes from the ShareWare HQ Lattice products, and from now on the BBS in Michigan (1-313-473-2020): Lattice C Compiler system will be known as the SAS C Compile. Msg: #5386 Sec: 1 - Utilities 23-Mar-90 03:43 PM In fact they have now released a major Subj: PKAZIP upgrade, version 5.10, which features From: Dennis Hoffman improved workbench support, better To: ALL AREXX support, an improved user in- terface, new UNIX compatible library I am no longer associated with PKA- functions, improved error messages ZIP. The wrath of PKWare has struck! and significant overall performance Since the majority of PKAZIP users improvements. AmigaDOS 2.0 include have not contributed for it, PRKWare files and libraries are supplied for has cancelled my contract with them AmigaDO$§ 2.0 development. and I will no longer receive royalties. Since I will not get any further pay- Suggested US retail price is $300, but ment for the program, I will not preach registered owners of the Lattice Ver- about paying for it. sion 5 C compiler can upgrade to ver- sion 5.10 for US $40. I guess it is time I got out my copy of LHARC and learn to use it. The timing For further information, contact: of PKWare’s decision is unfortunate. |

CURSOR PAGE 28 INNOVEMBER 1990 was about to compile my first CLI ver- schools. Or how about an Amiga Edu- sion this week. cational Sub-Group? Phil also wrote to me that he intends to form an Amiga David Campbell Users Group in Dalby. Keep us in- formed, Phil! AMIGAS AND EDUCATION STOP PRESS Phil Mellifont, a new member from Dalby, sent us an interesting video of Thanks to Chris Dunbar of Commo- animations produced by his pupils in dore User Group Support, we have in grades 5 and 6 of the Dalby South State this issue a pretty complete coverage of School. Nice work, Phil. Perhaps, one the main features of AmigaDOS Ver- day, we may be able to get a full length sion 2.0 - sorry no news about its re- video together of graphics and anima- lease yet, but we believe it’s getting tions (Amiga of course), totally close now! produced in Primary and Secondary

HELP! COLUMN

This is the HELP! column for users of Amiga computers. If you would like to share your experience in the fields of programming, software, hardware etc. with our fellow members, submit your name with your area of expertise to the editor. emember: the more names, the more knowledge can be disseminated amongst our members.

NAME: HELP OFFERED WITH: PHONE NO: Dave Apelt Vector Graphics 366 4761 Ellen Appleby Using Amigas in Education 369 4629 Tim Brattberg Assembly - AmigaBasic - Solid Vector Graphics 399 1973 Bob Devries OS9 Operating System 372 7816 Ralph De Vries Printers - WordPerfect - PageStream 300 3477 Robert Googe Video & Audio Digitising 288 8863 Steve Hoveltoud Audio Digitising 298 5128 Gary Lloyd C Programming (Beginners) 269 7818 Paul O’Brien Amateur Radio Communication 397 4102 Brendan Pratt Modems, Telecommunications, Sidecar (075) 463 317 Grant Robinson AmigaBasic 359 4315 Michael Thomas Forth, Prolog, C, and Modula-2 Programming 800 4511 John Van Staveren eaey Ledgers Accounting Program 372 3651 David Walton Bri idgeboard (IBM) (071) 834 742 Mike Williams AmigaBasic (Beginners), Sound 209 9084 Please be considerate - these are after hours numbers, so only ring our members between the hours of 6pm and 9pm during week nights.

NOVEMBER 1990 PAGE 29 CURSOR DESKTOP PUBLISHING - PART 3

Workbench release. 47592424 free nenony

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PSFonts2

Colors Posters

SOFTWARE TOOLS by Ralph De Vries Well, that’s a suggestion I cannot resist, so here goes... I’ve been positively underwhelmed by the response to my suggestion for the The software tools which I currently formation of a DIP Special Interest use are shown in our first illustration. Group. I’ve had a grand total of two phone calls - one from Toowoomba Hardware consists of an A2000 with a and one from Brisbane. In addition two total of 5 Meg of memory and the new of our committee members have Super Agnus fitted to give me 1 Meg of shown some interest. Because of this chip memory - very useful that. The lack of response I’ve decided not to go 2000 is outfitted with a 40 Meg auto- ahead with this project. However, if booting Quantum hard drive. I use a any of our members do need advice in sun Multi Scanning monitor, which this area, I’m always available. will come into its own when Version 2.0 of AmigaDOS and the Super Denise Richard Wetton (see ‘Mail Box’ in our are installed, as I will then be able to last issue), suggested that I write a bit use the new hi-res non-flicker Produc- about the production of CURSOR. tion Mode. Printing is done on the

CURSOR a PAGE 30 NOVEMBER 1990 Group’s HP Laserjet III, which has a After I receive the articles I load them total of 3 Meg of memory. into WordPerfect. The Search and Re- place function of this program is great As expected, most articles come to me to strip unwanted carriage returns on disk. Amiga articles come on 3,5" from ASCII files. The worst offenders disks, either as straight ASCII files or are the contents files of Fish disks; they as WordPerfect files. Occasionally I are full of carriage returns and multi- also get articles set up with Transcript ple TAB settings, but Wordperfect gets or Scribble. C64/128 articles come on rid of all the ‘rubbish’. I also use 5,25" disks in 1541 format (I’m unable WordPerfect’s spelling checker, be- to read the double sided 1571 format cause it is a lot faster than the spelling disks). To read the 1541 disks, I use the checker of PageStream, and it has an Transfer program supplied with the 64 Australian dictionary. Emulator program - this is the only useful part of the 64 Emulator. I con- It is now time to import these text files nect the 1541 drive with a special cable into PageStream. I set up three files to the of the Amiga. The each month - the first one is the Transtar program is used to convert ‘general file’ which holds all the infor- SEQ Pet ASCII files to ‘straight’ ASCII mation which you find in the front sec- files which I save out to an Amiga tion of our newsletter. File two is for drive. Troubles occur when I get the 8-bit material and file three for Amiga occasional C64 text file in PRG format. material. I’ve created two sets of two Tend up with a file of garbage charac- master pages, one starting with an ters, but Greg Perry wrote a nice little even page number and the other one Basic conversion routine for me to con- with an odd page number, which are vert these files to a more ‘conventional’ set up with two columns and the format. footers which include the page number information. An increasing number of members upload articles to the CURSOR section Initially a file may only consist of a few of our Bulletin Board. These, generally, pages. If I import a new article I append don’t present any problems. one or more of my sets of master pages. PageStream automatically re- the appended pages. I now 1 pus numbers import my WordPerfect text files and ae 170,008 hones robbed in Aastralia every year, one every 3 mast cormitted b yom | people, merployed personas cr drug this is where it gets interesting! I have we committed i prof essicaal house-beeakers, » 19% we committe ing a light hours, 54 entered by forcing the indsws, 32% by ifrwins deers, 7 ese had peaiemate security at set the program up to aufo justify int of eatey, (Pigues fron insurance Council ef Acstralia. @ is spread the text Sirgle precautions should be taken to protect your corputer equipreat, imported text (that even if sessees ly gem ” as aad files nay | irreplaceable, Deadlocks ea all catey deers aad Jocks ea all windows ae out over the full width of the column), eded, blocks nay be screved ane window chaanels to pestrict the size { the window opening. Mowever it has eftea been said that locks are caly get PageStream ta keep heaest perscas out, but after importation I ge- beast simple aad SRI ec tarts j Peet teae ilt ages esi fd tp T relay (6 alt to Batch Hyphenate the text. his, pesister pet c resister les. Becamse a snart nerally works well, but occasionally e¢ te have a nains povered chaice r nade 1 systen. i } t as. |eee as it’s shelf site because of the low the hyphenation routines break a word 29 Your ni share 3 bell a ap siven will versa hove linited in ‘unusual’ places, to say the least! saris frm a Pe wie alaa gino pl bet tory will power a ath, w fitted witht teichle fol wr ere ee I now go over the article with a fine toothcomb to find the wrong hyphena- tions and also manually hyphenate WORDPERFECT some words which the program

NOVEMBER 1990 PAGE 31 CURSOR doesn’t pe ges - a time consumin equally applicable to programs such as process. At this stage you usually fin PageStream or Professional Page. The that the first line of a new paragraph is book goes into a great deal of detail the last line of a column, or the last line about the use of fonts and readability. I of a paragraph appears on the top of a won’t go into the finer points, but the column (the so called ‘widows’ and author came to the conclusion that ‘orphans’). This now requires some Serif fonts are the preferred option. As ee juggling with the text to get rid of well, a large section of the book is ose. devoted to layout and production of newsletters. Well worth a read if you At this stage I would like to devote a can get hold of it. few paragraphs to fonts. Fonts basical- ly consist of three types. They are the: When I set up the September issue of Cursor I printed out one page in 16 dif- Sans-Serif Type, such as the Helvetia ferent font styles, both serif and font used in this line. sans-serif. The sans-serif styles, with- out any exception, were all ‘uneven’, The Serif style, as typified ot the that is some letters or parts of letters Palatino font which I use mainly for were thicker or thinner than the bulk of this newsletter. the characters. Quite a few of the serif fonts weren’t all that much better. In The display style fonts, such as the Chancery font the end I came up with only two fonts used here. which were of a sufficient uniform quality to use in Cursor (and even they We also have some special fonts which aren’t perfect); they are the Palatino produce symbols, like some of the and Koala fonts. I settled for the Dingbat symbols which follow here: Palatino font in 10 point size for the body text. The ‘repeat stuff’ (club infor- SBOOSSYKKXFSX + KEKO mation pape?) are set up in 8 point size. Real problems show up in the use Generally speaking, the bulk of com- of italics and underlining. To get accep- mercial publications seem to use the table spacing between italicised letters Serif fonts, but there are also quite a one has to do a lot of manual or batch few publications out there which use kerning, the technique of altering the sans-serif fonts. As an exercise, look spacing between letters; a real finicky through some printed matter and and time consuming process. In my check for font styles used; it’s quite in- Pievioue article I mentioned the pro- teresting. Display fonts are mainly lems with underlining letters like p used in advertising and brochures; and q. The descenders of these letters they are ‘headline grabbers’. should never go through the line. It looks extremely ugly and is a sign of Why use one type of font and not the bad font design. other? Recently I had the opportunity to read a book called "Design and Problems also occur with columns of Layout in Computer Publishing : for figures and program listings. Most of Users of Xerox Ventura Publisher Ver- the fonts stapled are proportional sion 2", written by Colin Wheildon. Al- fonts, which means that a letter such as though written for a specific DTP ‘l’ takes up less space than a ’W’. program, 90% of the contents are

CURSOR PAGE 32 NOVEMBER 1990 Proportional fonts don’t line up, al- 1104 x 908 pixels and September’s dog though reasonable results can be ob- was 768 x 1138 pixels; rather larger tained using the TAB function. than a normal hi-res picture! These However I prefer to use the Courier massive pictures, when imported into font (the ‘standard’ typewriter font) PageStream, give us a very acceptable which is non-proportional and hence a result. A ‘standard’ size (640 x 512) lot easier to use when you are trying to hi-res picture also reproduces rea- line up columns of text or figures. This sonably well, but pictures or we art is normally used in 8 point size for pro- which are set up in low or medium gram listings. resolution suffer from the dreaded jag- gies. Enough about fonts for now. I was asked the other day about the indent- Easiest to reproduce are straight black ing of paragraphs. Generally, if you and white pictures, but I’ve sneaked a work in columns, you can decide on few half tone pictures into the Sep. two courses of action. You can either issue (page 33), mainly as a test to see leave a blank line between paragraphs how they reproduce. and not do an indent, or just do an in- dent without leaving a blank line; this Half tone reproduction is very much is what you usually find in newspa- dependant on how these pictures are pers. I prefer the former option as it ‘processed’ by the printer. If he/she makes the page less cluttered looking. has highly sophisticated plate making Occasionally one sees pages made u and screening facilities, then the final which do both, namely leave a iiant result will inevitably be superior, but line as well as indent the new para- one pays for this in increased cost of graph. This seems rather excessive, as the final product. in fact you tell your readers twice that you are starting a fresh paragraph! Although PageStream has facilities to import graphics, I still resort in some Importations of graphics and pictures cases to printing them out with a are another interesting aspect of DTP rogram such as DPaint III, because programs. The preferred option is to we got more control over the final ap- use vectored or structured graphics, as earance. In West Germany one can produced by CAD programs such as uy a program called ‘Turbo Print Aegis Draw 2000 or Gold Disk’s Pro- Professional’, which offers a great ma- fessional Draw program. These require ny facilities to influence the final ap- two skills; patience and an ability to arance of the finished product; wish draw - I’ve got neither. There is some it were available here. Also in Ger- commercial clip art available which is many one can buy a program to con- vector based, but as yet I have not seen vert bit-mapped graphic Ee into any. vector graphics - let’s hope that it will soon make an appearance on the Aus- The next best option is to use a high tralian scene. resolution (640 x 400 or 640 x 512) pic- ture or drawing. Last August and Sep- It would be nice if I could get a regular tember’s front cover were assembled supply of original art work from our from some sample hi-res clip art sup- own members, but up till the present plied with PageStream Aytlowever I’ve only been supplied with material the picture of the Cottage (Aug) was by the two "L.W.’s", Leigh Winsor and

NOVEMBER 1990 PAGE 33 CURSOR Lindsay Whipp. Lately though, those sient omens can obviously produce very talented guys have gone very tter work. The most gratifying aspect quiet (more likely they are very busy). is that these tools have came down dramatically in price since 1983, and Clip Art, I find, never gives you that are likely to come down further during elusive picture that you are looking for. the next couple of years, thus offering The alternative, if you cannot produce more and more computer users the op- your own, is to ‘steal’ other peoples portunity to produce printed output of work. The two most ee methods an acceptable standare. are digitising with DigiView and a black & white video camera, or scan- Most comments on the appearance of ning an image with a scanner. The first our newsletter have been favourable, method (digitising) will set you back which pleases me no end, of course. about $1200 for camera, software and However, at this point in time, I am far reproduction stand. The second me- from satisfied with the end product, thod is dependant on the es of scan- because I know that it’s possible to get ner you buy. Reviews of hand held better results. Our Laserjet has two scanners have not been very encoura- beautiful built in scalable fonts, which I ging; however flat bed scanners like have great difficulty in accessing. the Sharp range are very nice, but you However I think that help is on the won’t get too much change out of way, but I cannot divulge any more at $3000. Sorry, but my budget won’t this stage. I’ll keep you posted on new stretch to these items at present! developments.

Well, you’ve got your text and gra- -0o0000- phics in place. The deadline has ex- pired, so it’s now time to print the POSTSCRIPT master piece. The three main files are usually between 16 to 20 pages. Each Thanks to our President, Greg Perry, file takes about an hour to print on the I’ve had an opportunity to experiment Laserjet (about 3 minutes per page). with the Compugraphic Fonts as used The front cover and the adverts are set in Professional Page V. 1.31. The re- up as separate files and these are also sults (see next page) are absolutely first printed. A lot more time is required to rate, but it took three times as long to cpp pages which are ’buggy’ - it can print this page - far too slow for use on take up to 7 minutes to reprint a single a ‘standard’ Amiga. page. Now paste up the graphics which were printed separately, collate Anyway, I’ve just received my order the lot and get the epic to Terry Steer, form for the PageStream V. 2.0 up- our printer. He usually presents us ade, which I’ve returned posthaste to with a copy of the new issue within a ft-Logik. As I mentioned in an earlier week, but it might be another 10 days article, this version also supports the before you get your copy, because He Compugraphic Fonts now, so I am has to do all the hard work of collating, anxiously awaiting the arrival of this bagging, labelling and sorting - quite a newcomer. major operation. Stay tuned for the next chapter in this It’s been a long haul since 1983 and my exciting series... 1526 printer and Easy Script. With the

CURSOR PAGE 34 NOVEMBER 1990 COMPUGRAPHIC FONTS

Following are some samples of the Compugraphic Fonts, as used by Profes- sional Page V1.31. They are all in 10 Point size - this is the same size which we use in the body of the text articles of this newsletter. The name of this font is CENTURYSCHLBK.

This is the ‘standard’ typewriter font, known as COURIER

This is one of two Sans Serif Font in this collection, the ITC Avant Garde font. aAbBcCadDeEfFgGnhilUkKILmMMnNoOpPqQ@rRsstTtuUv VwWxXxyYZZ.

ITC BOOKMAN is another popular Serif-type Font. Most of these fonts can also be BOLDED, ITALICISED, and OUTLINED.

The ITC ZAPF CHANCERY Font is a display type font. for advertising Flyers etc.

PALACIO is another Serif type font. ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ.

Probably the most popular Serif Font is TIMES. Although not previously mentioned we can underline all these fonts.

The last one in the ’standard’ font types is another sans serif font. This one is known as TRIUMVIRATE. Compare with the Avant Garde font above. aAbBcCdDeEfFgGhHiljJJkKiLmMnNoOpPqQrRsStTuUvVwWxXyYzZ.

Finally here are some samples from the ITCZapfDingbats Font and the Symbol Font in 15 Point size. OS CORY KY KRKERKXOX EC HH ZA At Kee OKRA SSR OOeoher sy Ts * *

CZpPVEZEWONOovYtToLpPOOmlloOvNuM

Close examination by PageStream users will convince them that these Com- pugraphic Fonts are indeed an improvement on PageStream’s current fonts. Hurry up, PageStream V.2.0!

INOVEMBER 1990 | PAGE 35 CURSOR VECTOR INTERRUPTS by David Campbell andplaces the table indices on the bus that are used for the seven autovector Did you know that the seven words interrupts. This is done by addressing from $fffff2 to $ffffff in Amigas hold the kickstart memory at addres- the interrupt vector numbers for the sesSfffff0.. $ffffff. You could write any device interrupts? Normally these are table indices there but the system set to use the autovectors (numbers software needs the numbers of the $19-$1f). On 500/2000 these are in autovector interrupts. ROM, but on a 1000 it is in RAM 50 it is possible to change any of the interrupts Thanks to Michael van Elst for this bit to use a different vector. Useless under of info. It really helped me because the AmigaDos, but interesting to know. debugger I am planning to put in my Why are the locations there? boot rom uses vertical blank interrupts to reset the bitmap pointers on its The 68000 handles vectored and au- video display. I am currently booting to-vector interrupts. If a device sends my debugger as a kickstart - but it an interrupt to the 68000 via the IPL would only run if the top sector of my lines, it responds by generating an in- kickstart image on the disk was left the terrupt acknowledge cycle. The cycle is same as on the normal kickstart. Now a regular memory cycle and can be I know why. My debugger will have finished by asserting the DTACK line. to set those vectors for it to properly The word on the data bus is taken as function. The reason why I want the the index into the interrupt vector debugger is because I am really inter- table. If the cycle is terminated via VPA ested in the design of operating sys- then the 68000 takes instead one of tems and MINIX, and want to write seven autovector interrupts according my own. to the state of the IPL lines.

Now, the Amiga software uses auto- vector interrupts, so therefore the hardware should generate a VPA sig- nal. Unfortunately, the Amiga hard- ware does not allow the use of the VPA signal except for true synchronous bus cycles to the CIAs (they didn’t qualify the VPA signal for CIA access thus anytime the VPA signal goes low, the CIA would respond). Why does it work though ? I «ern the President The Amiga generates a DTACK for an OF this ot sit? interrupt acknowledgement cycle

CURSOR PAGE 36 NOVEMBER 1990 AMIGAS AND ABSOLUTE EXECUTABLES by David Campbell The setup code could even be copying the executable onto the top of itself I have quite a bunch of programs writ- most likely causing an instant crash. ten by people from all over the world. Another task could be running at Many are written by conscientious $30000, or your screen could be there. people who write useful programs for With the new chipset, it is likely that themselves and for the benefit of their system information will be there, fellow man, human race, etc. etc. screwing up everything or guruing. Using this sort of action could even Out from the realm of demo and result in corrupted disks. games programmers has stepped a new breed of programs and utilities. Obviously programming this way is These programs are often quite clever, i ic and goes against every and seem to run fine BUT... under- principle of the Amiga’s operating sys- neath a dark figure is lurking; the in- tem. famous GURU. If you program like this, please mend Why do I say this? Well, many of these your ways, because with the new chip- utilities are written in a programming set and 1 Meg of chip memory, there style which should only he used when will most likely be a rearrangement of a program completely takes over the system structures causing your pro- Amiga and never returns back to Ami- rams to overwrite these structures et until reset by C-A-A (games, feadiitee to a definite guru and/or ma- emos etc). This programming style is king your program unusable and then called "absolute code”. people will know that the author had definite brain damage. Absolute code is code which cannot be relocated. The Amiga can load an ex- With ReSource and a bit of hacking, it ecutable at any address (basically), and is possible to fix up a program that for the executable to run at that loca- uses absolute code, but it sometimes tion, certain parts of the program must takes quite a bit of work. be adapted. Inside each executable is information describing the changes How can a non-programmer determine which need to be made by the system if a program misbehaves in this way? for the program to properly run. The They can’t, unless the system com- process of making these changes is pletely screws up. To find out if a called relocation. program is misbehaving it would have _to be disassembled and-examined. Using absolute code doesn’t let Amiga- Dos know how to properly relocate the I hear the DEFJAM cruncher creates ex- executable. Instead, the executable ecutables that use this style of coding. loads in anywhere and setup code in- Avoid it; refuse to pervert your exe- side the executable copies the actual bi- cutables. nary down to some fixed address in memory, say $30000. The problem is Actually the Macintosh operating sys- that anything could be at $30000. tem does not use relocation. All code

NOVEMBER 1990 PAGE 37 CURSOR must be completely position indepen- Amiga running the same CPU at the dant. This means that a programmer same clock speed. Why did they do must avoid a whole bunch of instruc- this? Well the original Mac was tions, and therefore introduce inef- designed around a wimpy 128k of ficiencies into their code. (When you RAM. The Mac’s operating system can allocate memory you get a pointer to a shift your program around while it is handle to that block of memory instead in the middle of execution to achieve of a pointer to memory YUK). The memory defragmentation. The Mac result of all this is that a Macintosh will even deallocate the memory used running a CPU ata certain clock speed for the pull down menus if it needs to, will ALWAYS be slower than an which are later loaded from disk.

8520 PROBLEMS

by David Campbell CROSS-DOS HANGS - It must use one of the timers on a CIA. The "norma|]" I picked up the following network access to AmigaDos formatted disks posting by [email protected]: worked fine.

I recently had a "sick" amiga on my DRAKKHEN (the game) WON’T hands. All of it’s troubles were caused PLAY MUSIX OR SOUND F/X - This by faulty 8520 CIA chips. happened the same time I had the above mentioned CrossDos problem. I thought that it might be of help to others if I posted the symptoms. That ACCESS TO FLOPPY DRIVES WON’ WORK way, if you had these symptoms, all CORRECTLY - itt mns ou need to do is replace the 8520(s) (at symptoms. $20.00 a piece) instead of paying $50.00 an hour to get it repaired.... The above problems were re-created by Swapping around 3 different bad SYMPTOMS OF A BAD 8520 (Not all chip to the different sockets. eee of them, of course): There are, I am sure, many more TOD CLOCK FREEZES - I could set Gene that could be caused by a the clock with the ‘setclock’ command, ad 8520. but once set, the time never changed. Other symptoms of this are that Dmouse won’t blank the screen. ‘double clicks’ can occur, even if you Never ever connect/ disconnect floppy wait two hours between clicks! drives while the Amiga is turned on. Programs that depend on the times- Your Amiga can continue to function tamp of a file will act strangely. properly but damage has been done which can show up in programs which SYSTEM WON’T BOOT & CAPS drive the disk control hardware direct- LOCK LIGHT FLASHES CONSTANT- | ly in particular. LY - Self explanatory

CURSOR PAGE 38 INOVEMBER 1990 AMIGADOS 2.0 20 2.0 2.0 Ad) 2.0

Close Up View of Features and Benefits AmigqaDOS 2.0: The New Look

A number of factors make AmigaDOS 2.0 a significant advance over previous versions of AmigaDOS. This overview should give you a good feel for the enhancements that are unique to AmigaDOS 2.0.

More Professional Look and Feel - The Workbench, pull down menus, windows, and almost all aspects of the graphic user interface of AmigaDOS have been improved significantly. Icons have a new, embossed appearance. Workbench default colours are now a combination of cool greys rather than stark biue. The key differences become quite obvious after only a few brief moments of using AmigaDOS 2.0.

Customization - Selecting different fonts for use with icons, Workbench text and pull down menus is just one of the ways that a new, higher level of customization has been added to AmigaDOS 2.0. The ability to choose a background patiern for the Workbench or any window has also been added.

Ease of Use - Many operations have been made easier under AmigaDOS 2.0. Building startup-sequences, for example, has been simplified with an easy ‘startup drawer’ that allows you to build your starting routine by dragging and dropping programs into that drawer. Making a new drawer has been made easier, with a menu option from the Workbench to do just that. Multiple select of icons with a simple ‘lasso’ drag select, and many other features, make AmigaDOS 2.0 significantly easier to use than ever before.

Faster, Smarter - AmigaDOS 2.0 has been re-written in the °C* programming language. This has introduced a new element of speed and faster execution times on most operations. Many of the AmigaDOS Workbench commands have been written not only for greater speed, but for more efficient, intuitive use.

Icon Interface Improvements - Dependence on CLI has been nearly eliminated. With AmigaDOS 2.0, the user can view ALL files on a disk by simply selecting an option to do this. Default icons are provided for files that do not have them. This makes file manipulation for files which were currently only visible through CLI easy and quick through the use of the Workbench.

Power for the Power User - In addition to the AmigaDOS 2.0 interface, more powerful programming tools and language support have also been added. AREXX, the powerful macro style programming language, now comes with AmigaDOS 2.0. A host of powerful support utilities, like Backup and Restore Utility (BRU), Commodities Exchange, and Workbench accessed command execution from a pull down menu, have increase the flexibility of AmigaDOS to even the most experienced professional Amiga users. The Workbench The most radically changed aspect of AmigaDOS is the Workbench. The most obvious difference evident to someone using AmigaDOS 2.0 for the first time, is the change of system default colours. The new set of default Workbench colours reflects a more professional look. Secondly, after some investigation, the user will find that a number of new commands have been added to the Workbench menus. Here is a summary of some of the key new Workbench commands (available from the standard Workbench pull down menus).

Backdrop When you choose Backdrop, the Workbench window disappears and the disk icons appear on the Workbench screen. To make the Workbench into a window once more, select the Backdrop menu option again.

Execute Command This option allows you to execute a CLI style AmigaDOS command from the Workbench level. This saves the user from having to open a SHELL to execute a quick and simple command. For example, you could get a listing of the system directory by executing the DIR command.

Redraw all Redraws all curently opened Workbench windows to correct any disturbances to the Workbench display, that may have occured.

Update all Updates the current status of a window, should it have changed since it was last opened (e.g. new file icons. etc).

New Drawer This option allows the user to create a new drawer or directory for which to store files. This eliminates the old method of duplicating empty drawers when new drawers are required to store new files or programs. A window must be selected in order for you to create a new drawer within that window.

Open Parent Allows you to open the original ‘parent’ window from which an application drawer was originally stored.

Update Same as Update All. but works only on the currently selected window. Select Contents Causes all of the icons in the currently selected window to the selected. Show (only icons) Displays all of the programs or files within a selected window that have an icon file attached to them. Workbench files or a file that has an icon attached to it will be visible when this is used. Show (all files) Displays all of the programs or files within a selected window. whether or not they have an icon file attached to them. In cases

ett where an icon is NOT attached, a default system icon is provided. This enables files which were not previously visible from the Workbench level to be visible to the user. View by (icon) Selects the icon viewing mode for the currently selected window (represents all files with icons). View by (name) Selects the text viewing mode for the currently selected window (represents all files with text. and sorts files by file name. alphabetically. View by (date) Same as View by name, but sorts files in order of creation date, or the date the file was last modified. View by (size) Text display, sorts files by file size, smallest to largest.

Unsnapshot Frees an icon from its previous snapshotted position. Causes icons to be placed where the Workbench chooses the next time that window is opened containing that icon.

Leave Out Allows a constantly used drawer, application or file to be stored on the Workbench screen, giving you instant access to it without having to open several drawers first.

Put Away Restores a drawer, or file to its original location after it has been stored on the Workbench screen with the ‘leave out’ command.

ResetWB Redraws all windows and icons on the Workbench screen to correct any disruptions caused by other applications.

Tools Special commands for switching the language that AmigaDOS uses for its requestors and menus. English, French and German are currently supported through this function.

Preferences Preferences for AmigaDOS 2.0 use several stand-alone programs to address the Issue of customizing the Amiga environement.

AmigaDos 2.0 Prefs window showing the various preference control programs. Note that several new preferences functions have been added, as well as font Customization. The input program allows you to control various aspects of mouse and keyboard speed and sensitivity. A more friendly. intuitive system is used to actually allow you to test your new preference choices before you invoke them.

The wbscreen program allows you to change the current resolution of your Workbench screen. You may choose from a variety of screen resolutions, depending on which resolutions are supported by the monitor which you are currently using. Several new resoltuion modes have been added to AmigaDOS 2.0, when used with the new Enhanced Chip Set (ECS).

Overscan allows you to set the amount of overscan (inter border display area) that the user wishes to have available. This is used primarily for multiscanning monitors jn order to utilize previously unused screen space in the border areas.

This program, as in AmigaDOS 1.3, allows you to change the shape and colour of your mouse pointer on the Workbench screen. This be useful for applications where a crosshair style pointer may be more suitable than an arrow. or for visually impaired people who may need a larger, more visible Workbench pointer.

[control is a program that allows you to customize some of the keystroke combination keys that are pre-defined by the operating system. For example, the AmigaDOS key to cancel a requester is left Amiga-B. Icontrol will allow you to change this.

This program allows for the fine tuning of quality of graphics output to printers. RGB colour correction, dithering. sizing and density are controlled through this program as well as picture centering and smoothing of graphic dump output.

This program allows you to design a custom backdrop pattern which may be used on the Workbench, or within windows, or both simultaneously . You may also use any one or two of the eight pre-defined patterns that come with AmigaDOS 2.0 if you wish.

This program allows the user to set the various communications parameters associated with the built into the Amiga. The serial port is the connector that allows you to connect a serial printer (usually laser printers) or a modem.

This program allows the user to select the appropriate printer driver for the printer that is connected to the Amiga, as well as selecting output page size. the output port for printed material (serial or parallel) print pitch and quality of output text. This program will permit the user to modify the colour values for the current Workbench colours. This will also affect the colours of programs that run using the Amiga’s Workbench colours. The palette program can control a palette from 2 to 16 colours.

The font program introduces a unique feature of AmigaDOS. This feature allows the user to select what typestyles they wish to use for Workbench icon text, screen text, and system default text. For users who do not like the current system font, or merely want to introduce a larger font of their choosing. they may introduce a new level of customization using the font program.

The Time program allows you to set the Amiga’s system time. This program will also allow you to change the system date. This new preference based time setting program eliminates the need to program the Amiga’s system clock using CLI, and is friendlier than the previous method.

New Workbench Utilities A number of new utility programs have been incorporated into AmigaDOS 2.0. These programs are a culmination of features which are highly popular on many Amiga public domain programs. and increase productivity and ease of use. For this outline. we will examine only the new or significantly changed programs.

Exchange (or ‘Commodities Exchange’) is the program which enables the user to control a variety of new programs that come supplied with AmigaDOS 2.0. Its main purpose is to allow you to turn on or off various programs in such a way that they work in harmony with other software running on the Amiga concurrently.

This program allows windows to be selected by merely moving the mouse pointer over the current window. This is a feature found in the operating systems of many high-end graphics workstations.

The blanker program will blank’ your system monitor if the Amiga does not receive any input for the user (mouse movements, keyboard input) within a specified period of time.

Fkey allows you to program the functions keys located at the top of the keyboard. For commonly or frequently used keystrokes the user can assign command strings or text strings to these keys, to be called upon whenever needed. This is one of the most obvious programs where commodities exchange support can be valuable. [help will allow you to perform window sizing and cycling operations on programs which are launched from tools or projects. You can assign a keystroke combination set to enact window size changes and locations of these programs using lhelp.

The Nocapslock program will render the Caps Lock key inactive while the program is running. This is for people who find they hit the Caps Lock key accidentally. hocaps lock

New Printer Drivers At the time of this writing, AmigaDOS 2.0 printer drivers are: Alphacom_Alphapro_101 CBM MPS_ 1250 Okidata_92 Brother_HR-IS5XL Howtek_Pixelmaster Okimate_20 Calcomp_Colormaster | &2 HP_Deskjet Quadram_Quadjet Canon_PJ-1080A HP_Laserjet Qume_LetterPro_20 CBM_MPS 1000 HP_Paintjet Seiko_5300 Dlablo_C-150 HP_Thinkjet Sharp_JX-730 Diablo_Advantage_D25 Imagewriter_II Tektronix_469x series EpsonQ (24 pin) NEC_Pinwriter Toshiba_P35 EpsonX (9 pin) Okidate_2931 Xerox_4020

The New Look - Workbench 2.0 screen shown with several windows open. This example shows the flexibility of AmigaDOS 2.0 to satisfy those who like to work with icons, and those who prefer a text based interface. The colours, gadgets, menus, and icons all have a more professional look and feel. Note the cleaner, crisper look of the workbench overall. Menu bars contain valuable, friendly information about the window which they have open. Information pertaining to number of files and how much disk space they occupy. The main workbench menu bar also contains information telling the user how much available system memory is available to them at all ATs Fear sented en FLOM RICE NAA times. This 425 full, 2m free a rc G6 me! _...... 4 Ss useful - asa i) Se S when a user a | is running “a several 4 applications 4) at one time. ‘3a This is a real ‘cana Plus for =a users who 4) take advaniage of coe see ae —-fued ‘ib be (37:2 3 Bs ie: (om SHEER Ts |: . . calentatée = 10552 --rwed 26-Bpe-98 11247524 Saie peaeyees a multitasking. Clock : : £0204 eyed 26-Ber-90 14:47817 a TO SER cnd - ~ 0360 ——twed wn 14:47: a6 AmigaDOS 2.0: Features at a Glance

e professional look and feel e faster than previous versions of AmigaDOS e fully customizable preferences © AREXX included enew user selectable fonts for all screens and windows ¢e additional high resolution displays (ECS required) e more printer drivers ° boot menu allows device priority assignment

¢ backup and restore utility (BRU) for file backups to drives and streaming tape drives ¢ default icons allows access to all files from the workbench ¢ character mapped text console windows ° Commodities Exchange ° record locking ° overscan support MACRO-68 ASSEMBLER

reviewed by David Campbell It also will assemble the Amiga Copper instructions with commands like: I recently purchased an assembler from DigiSoft, a small Brisbane firm. It is CMOVE-> copper move different from the older style assem- LCMOVE-> long copper move (two cop- per instructions) blers in that it uses the new syntax s CWAIT-> copper wait cified by Motorola, and will assemble CEND -> copper wait for the impos- code for processors from the 68000 to sible the 68030. A utility is pavided to pain- CSKIP-> copper skip lessly convert from the old syntax to the new syntax. It’s multi-pass but very fast, in fact it’s the fastest of all Amiga multi-pass This syntax will eventually become the assemblers, and it is faster than the as the 3000 and ’030 boards reputedly fastest single-pass assembler standard in many instances. becomes more popular and programs using ’030 native code start to appear. Programs utilizing ‘030 native code can Macro68 was designed to not limit the user in any way; most features are run several times faster than those compatible 68000 limited only by available memory. It using backward boasts many new and innovative di- code. rectives giving unparalleled macro power. Some simple examples of changes to the format (using plain 68000 code, the minor): Full listing control including cross changes are fairly reference capabilities is Fvchded. A user-accessible file provides the ability Old syntax:movea.14,a6 .w,a6é syntax:movea.1(4) to customize directives and run-time New messages from the assembler. Macro68 lets the programmer be more specific with code, as above. Most as- Macro68 is fully reentrant. An AREXX semblers automatically use the word interface provides "real-time" com- representation of the number 4 (above). munication with an AREXX compatible Macro68 will too if you don’t specify it, editor. A number of directives enable but it also allows the user to be Macro68 to communicate with specific. Macro68 also provides a strict AmigaDos. External programs may be mode which ensures that each instruc- invoked on either pass, and the results tion must be fully specified (not left to interpreted. the assembler to decide), permittin exact control over the assembly, sa Possibly the most unique feature of the avoidance of hard to detect bugs. Macro68 is the use of a shared-library. The library is always resident, and al- Old syntax: jsr_LVOOpenLibrary (a6) lows the use of preassembled, resident New syntax: jsr(_LVOOpenLibrary, a6) include files for incredibly fast as- semblies. These may be the standard Full support is given for the 68881 and eo files, or any header files may be 68882 tloating point coprocessors and used. A special command is given to 68851 memory management unit.

NOVEMBER 1990 PAGE 47 CURSOR expunge the library to reclaim the 1.5 Mb Source File: memory if required. Assembly Time: 1 min 4sec Macro68 can output executables, link- Line Count = 45300 able objects, binary images, pre-as- Lines/min = 41880 sembled symbol tables, and Motorola S records. Same Source File on 68030 processor: Some timings on some REAL programs Assembly Time: 10.8 sec I have (Not the files full of NOP in- Lines/min = 251640 structions like most assemblers are timed on. These programs have in- Macro68 is suitable for all Amigas with clude files (especially the first at least 1 meg of memory and is avail- Bros ram) they have to load from the able from DigiSoft (07) 277-3255. The isk): ReSource disassembler is already avail- able in a four times faster ’030 native Assembly time = 25.53 sec code version which supports the new Line count = 11157 assembler syntax. A new version of Lines/min = 26160 ReSource using 68000 code is coming out using the new syntax, so Macro-68 Assembly time = 2.03 sec and ReSource will go hand in hand, Line count = 1665 together forming a powerful toolkit. Lines/min = 48480

AUTOCONFIG

by David Campbell boards. If you have expansion devices, you All this is done before you get to see may not be aware of the auto- con- anything from the Amiga operating figuration process which happens system, and once done, it cannot be un- every time you power up or press one except by executing the pri- C-A-A. vileged RESET instruction. What happens is that the expansion I have a 512k expansion devices take turns at displaying their board. If I write $20 to % 080048, the device characteristics at a page of board is then located at $200000. Next memory at $e80000. When a program in line is my SCSI board. If next I write (normally the expansion library) ex- $e9 to $e80048 then it is visible at amines the device characteristics (see $e90000. Of course it must be done p26-28 of A2000/A500 technical before kickstart gets to say boo. reference manual), it decides where it wants that board to go and writes a I haven’t seen another computer with byte representation of that to $e80048, such a good expansion system as then the next board takes its turn at AutoConfig, but it does involve extra displaying its characteristics, and the hardware on expansion devices. cycle repeats until there are no more

CURSOR PAGE 48 INNOVEMBER 1990 + Professional Staff (Senior Technicians)

¢ Fast Turnaround

+ Flat Rate Charges « All Work Guaranteed

+ Special Rates for C.C.U.G.Q. Members (on production of membership card)

SOUTH EAST QUEENSLAND COMPUTER REPAIRS (Tony May - Manager)

Shop 4, 32 Brisbane Road, Bundamba Phone (07) 816 1588 MEMORY MANAGEMENT, OPERATING SYSTEMS AND COMMODORE’S FUTURE

by David Campbell The 68030 has a subset of the MMU built into the CPU. Do you like visits from the GURU? On an operating system like AmigaDos A program running in supervisor where multiple programs can be run- node on tell the MMU to rae an ning, a bug in any one of those area of memory inaccessible. Therefore programs can cause the termination of an operating system could make it im- all the others. Sure, programs like possible for a user program to change GOMF help, but you never feel com- the exception vector table. It also pletely safe. The main problem is that a means that a user program could be

rogram can freely walk over any part forced to use ONLY its own memory, —— —_— of another program. and if it violated the rule, then that program could be killed. The 68000 CPU has two modes of operation: user mode and supervisor An operating system could also protect mode. The supervisor mode permits all the custom chip and I/O locations the execution of some extra (pri- making them only accessible by system vileged) instructions which are not ex- calls. Under IBM’s new operating sys- ecutable in user mode. If the CPU in tem, OS/2 Joke: What is OS/2? Half user mode tries to execute one of these an operating system!!), a user program privileged instructions, the CPU im- can put in a request to the operating mediately initiates an exception and system for it to grant access to I/O starts executing code at the memory space to enable really high speed I/O. location pointed to by the pointer (vec- tor) at location $000020 which is the The Intel 80386 can do all this as well privilege violation exception vector. (although Intel takes backward com- Under AmigaDos, this points to a patibility to the point of being back- routine which initiates guru number ward). There are quite powerful 386 $00000008. GOMF ereuld tedirect this machines around, even available in vector to its own code thereby avoid- laptop versions. ing that guru. When UNIX comes out for Amigas it All exception handling code is ex- will probably be very expensive, but it ecuted in supervisor mode; therefore if will provide an excellent environment. your program running in user mode The Amiga has the advantage of its redirects an exception vector to your graphics Randwave, Windows running own subroutine, and then you initiate on PCs are S..L..0..W because it does that exception, that subroutine will be not have the blitter hardware that the executed in supervisor mode. Amiga has to shift graphic images around the screen. UNIX has its If the Amiga had a Memory Manage- X-Windows window system which can ment Unit (MMU a 68851), or a 68030 take full advantage of the graphics CPU it is possible to have an operating hardware. It will be very interesting to system where GURUs cannot occur. see what results.

CURSOR PAGE 50 NOVEMBER 1990 There is a very lucrative workstation $7000. Commodore better get its act market that Commodore hasn’t even together to succeed, otherwise it will touched. Sun microsystems have be biting the dust. I hear that Com- recently released their SPARC modore’s profit for this quarter wasn’t workstations with Unix for around a profit; it was a loss, and that even $8000; they have over 2000 software Atari made a tiny tiny profit. I suppose ackages available now (mind you, Commodore is spending a lot of ou’ll pay heaps for them). I hear money on V2.0 development. Amiga 000s without Unix come for

AMIGA 3000 STOP PRESS: The Amiga 3000 was officially released here during the last week of September.

Unlike in the USA, Commodore has decided to release only the 25 Mh z version in Australia, with either the 40 Meg or the 100 Meg Hard d rive - a sensible decision in our view.

The initial shipments are only limited, but the computer should be freely available in early 1991. complete package, consisting of an A-3000 with 40 Meg hard

A °o the new 1950 multiscanning monitor and the A10 external drive, akers with built in amplifier, plus the AmigaVision package will spe you $7000. The same package with a 100 Meg hard drive sells for ost $8000. Initially the A3000 will load Kickstart Version 2.0 from disk (version 1.3 of AmigaDOS is also supplied), but in the near future Version 2.0 of Kickstart will be installed in chip form (at long last!). (Information supplied by Royce Jones of United Computers, Bundamba.)

-00000-

INNOVEMBER 1990 PAGE 51 CURSOR he Number One Symbol in Computers. Commodore.

C= commodore COMPUTER Keeping up with you.